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Portable photo storage - instead of a SD card

bczoom

Super Moderator
Staff member
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We have some vacations coming and I don't want to take my PC.

So, I went to Costco today and picked up (4) 2-Gig SD cards ($127) for storing photos.

I then needed to kill some time while Mrs. Zoom shopped and I ended up at OfficeMax.

They had something I hadn't seen before. It's a SmartDisk 40G drive tailored for cameras but works as a regular external drive. Click HERE for details.

For the price of (4) 2-gig SD cards, you can get this 40-gig unit. It costs $119 in the store.

Anyone know anything about it? Although in the box, I believe the dimensions are about the size of a pocket camera so you can take it with you.

Here's the details.
Features/Benefits…
- Easy to use: A single push of the copy key and data from the memory card will be transferred to the hard drive in seconds. The LCD screen indicates the transfer progress from each card location.
- Fast transfers: Designed with a Hi-Speed USB 2.0 interface, this portable device transfers photos to your computer in a snap. It supports data transfers speeds up to 2-2.5MB per second.
- Power supply: The built-in 1200mAH rechargeable lithium battery charges in 3 hours.
- Compatibility: CompactFlash® I, CompactFlash® II, MicroDrive, SmartMedia, MemoryStick®, MemoryStick-PRO™, SD, Mini-SD and MultiMediaCard.
 

Dargo

Like a bad penny...
GOLD Site Supporter
I'm not big on anything with moving parts. I just bought a couple of 8 gig SD cards for about $50 each. Besides the speed advantage of chip based memory, it seems that every hard drive will eventually crash and they are much more likely to be damaged by any impact or an accidental drop. Just my take.
 

XeVfTEUtaAqJHTqq

Master of Distraction
Staff member
SUPER Site Supporter
Make sure you test out the drive first. It would suck if it overwrote files or didn't work.

I'd shoot a bunch of files, sync them, delete the SD Card, shoot more and sync them again. I would be worried that synced files with the same name might get overwritten.

Just a thought. It's always best to test before trust.
 

DaveNay

Klaatu barada nikto
SUPER Site Supporter
I'm going to go against the grain here and suggest you DO NOT purchase the large storage device. Having had plenty of experience with storage device failure and infant mortality, I would suggest you purchase a handful of 2gig or 4gig cards (the current sweet spot of price anyway). This way, you spread your photos out amongst them, and if one goes bad, or is lost (the most likely), then you have not lost your entire set of photos from your vacation.
 

Dargo

Like a bad penny...
GOLD Site Supporter
I've been using one of the 8 gig SD cards in a USB thumb drive adapter for data backups and the other is in my 10 mp camera. I've not had any issues with either. I bought these from a pawn shop that claimed to have purchased them off of eBay. I really don't have a reason to doubt them since the owner just plays on eBay the entire day. Here is a pic of one of the two I bought including the USB 2.0 adapter that came with each.

*edit*

I just looked on eBay and it appears as if most have a "buy it now" price for about $56 for the 8 gig. I feel that I got a decent price for them, but nothing that would make me go wild over. It seems that the price jumps quite a bit with the 10 gig SD chips and are really high for the one place that says they have 16 gig SD chips. So, Dave, 8 gig ain't big. C'mon man. Catch up with Gaterboy and the rest of the world. :5boobs:
 

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DaveNay

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SUPER Site Supporter
Dargo said:
So, Dave, 8 gig ain't big. C'mon man. Catch up with Gaterboy and the rest of the world. :5boobs:
No, 8Gig isn't big these days. I was simply advocating not putting all your eggs in one basket, and splitting the data amongs several devices.
 

Dargo

Like a bad penny...
GOLD Site Supporter
I gots big eggs. :thumb: Do you know how much space 10 mp jpg files are? Also, I can get about an hour of video on them. I have always figured that the idea with memory is 'go big or stay at home' cause it'll be considered small next week.
 
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